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User blog:AlexGRFan97/My take on Clarkson's latest statement
I thought I might as well throw in my two cents in the vain hope this is read by more than one person. Jeremy Clarkson's a controversial man, this is something we all know and should not be a surprise to anyone. He's stood on a lot of toes and bloodied more than a few noses in his 30 years of broadcasting. He reigns 2-0 undefeated in the courts against a certain American brand of electric cars ran by a South African entrepreneur who couldn't take the banter and Clarkson's biting, abrasive tone. He spent the '90s and early '00s mercilessly beating the snot out of the remains of British Leyland until they folded to the Chinese. At one point in time, they, alongside General Motors, Peugeot and Toyota all wanted his head on a pike. So what did he do this time? He took negatively to a certain juvenile mouthpiece whose influential parents (put it this way; a normal child/teenager of a working-class background would never get a thousandth of the privileges she's enjoyed thus far, you can admit that or stay in denial) are turning into a phenomenon due to the tone and impression she's setting, and the internet collectively flips its lid. The fuel added to the dumpster, the fire was officially ignited when a Twitter snowflake by the handle of @shane_reaction_ referred to Clarkson's choice of words as "hypocritical", and attempted to equate something we have close to zero idea of what truly happened aside from eyewitness testimonies, and which Clarkson even decided to man up and come clean of all on his own accord rather than sit on it, as opposed to someone who the MSM are currently filming the individual farts of for extra coverage. Of course, this was then quickly followed by the drama lovers of Reddit, which I believe to have firmly established itself as the armpit of the internet which we must all go through to get noticed these days (and indeed I shall later this year to get the word out on something many of you will like) since most forums have turned into stagnant cesspools and the reinvention of discussion channels through the likes of Discord and such have proven far too restrictive and intrusive. For the past five or so years, Reddit has built up a reputation of defending and whiteknighting some utterly dire examples of humanity, and has tore into others for contrasting beliefs, whether social or political. It has led witch hunts and shut down valid investigation. Now, here's the insane part; for his "crime", self-proclaimed "fans" of Top Gear and The Grand Tour are now rebuking him en masse. Calling him a boomer, an asshole, clueless, you name it, stating that they will no longer watch the shows for him. Because of one thing he posted on the internet. Not even anything related to the production of either of his pet series, nor any actual real-world offense. After 22 seasons of Top Gear, he could have easily taken his ball and gone home forever. But he didn't, out of love for us, the fans. He started a rival show which has proven to be a massive success in the grand scheme of things, and has given us three seasons' worth of brand new classic moments we'll all still be talking about 20 years from now. Let's put it this way: If this latest tally mark in the list of controversies JC has caused in his long and storied career has caused you to lose all respect for him, then you are not a fan of Top Gear or The Grand Tour. Period. Why? Because this is not the thing that should have pushed you over the edge. If you considered yourself as a fan/supporter of Clarkson until this latest statement, this means you unilaterally endorsed the following: *The belief that Americans are the worst people on the planet for just about everything (including cars) *The wasteful destruction of many classic/functional cars such as a show-grade Alpine in Supercar Showdown, an AEC Routemaster in Thriller and an old 911 in Most Outrageous *Deliberately damaging a historic brick wall, crashing into a protected tree and purposefully polluting the Severn Estuary whilst attempting to destroy a Toyota Hilux *Aggrieving Germans of their past in politics and warfare on an almost-consistent basis *Showing uncensored fetish porn to audience members throughout Series 11, involving a man in lingerie doing something unsavory to a classic Range Rover's tailpipe *Likening truckers to serial killers that murder prostitutes *Calling Romania "Borat" country and describing its citizens as gypsies and playboys *Calling all Mexicans "feckless" and "lazy" (even though Hammond said this, the internet doesn't care) *Starting a small war in Argentina *Thumping Oisin Tymon for the crime of cold food *Partaking in potentially insensitive humour which resulted in accusations of homophobia *Then responding to said accusations by claiming to watch lesbian porn *And more recently, that F1 in its current form is an abomination and the racing has never been more boring I'm not saying any nor all of this is bad, many of these were over-reactions on behalf of the media and easily-offended individuals, but my point is you don't have to agree with him all the time, but to have remained on his side through everything else only to turn around at this latest kink in the road and go "No! That's too far!" is nothing short of hypocrisy. Out of all those things on the list above, and this is the thing that breaks your metaphorical camel's back? So all those countries couldn't take a joke, the BBC threw the baby out with the bath water and Will Young was merely just an attention seeker in your eyes, but god forbid he dares to speak out against a kid. That crosses the line. In addition to all this, without him, neither of the shows would exist as how we know or remember them. James May, often considered the online community's darling, wasn't even a part of the first series and wouldn't have come back were it not for the presenting talent of one Jeremy Clarkson. Hammond on the other hand was a Men & Motors runt that didn't get a personality, nor much of a voice until the fourth series, and whose job was at stake during the Christmas 2002 period. The way I see it, you either weigh up his faults against his perks like the fallible, mortal human being he is, or you take no notice because you can't please everyone all the time and it's not a goddamn crime to state a dissenting opinion on the internet. It's not like he did any of the disgusting stuff that Jimmy Savile committed and got away with in his lifetime. This whole cult is starting to get out of hand. Regardless of which side of the fence you fall, it is becoming increasingly evident, whether you browse Jalopnik, Youtube or even somewhere like /o/, people such as us who are fans of internal combustion-powered cars are being viciously attacked for our lifestyle. The recent protests at the Frankfurt Motor Show are indicative of this. No matter what car companies and local governments do, it will never be enough. Not until every ICE-powered car is scrapped. Make no mistake, this Wiki, and any other Wikis under the Bureaucracy of yours truly, AlexGRFan97, will glorify the legacy of fossil-fuel powered vehicles for as long as I am in charge. It will not fall victim to censorship, lobbying or any other form of pressure. Brigading and vandalism will be dealt with should it arise, and should FANDOM itself do anything funny then let's just say our ties may not be as ironclad as once thought. Category:Blog posts